The LEVEL 11 blog

How did he do it? No doubt that Barack Obama made history and rewrote the book when it comes to campaigning in the 21st century. Against all odds, a mostly unknown senator from Illinois was remarkably effective in two extremely hard fought campaigns. How did he possibly do it twice?! These politically-based questions are asked everyday by those who marvel at this man’s rise to power or, conversely, by his biggest critics. Whatever your political perspective may be, we have the answer for you: an efficient and effective online marketing campaign.

President Obama took notice of the shifting landscape of traditional media channels and devoted a record amount of his marketing budget specifically to online advertising. While his opposing candidates embraced more common and trusted avenues such as television and radio to reach the masses, Obama took a leap of faith into an new medium--and the gamble paid off immensely. His digital team concocted an efficient and extensive strategy that proved to be the difference maker when voters took to the polls.

Their plan was simple, but extremely effective. A responsive website that was rich in content and invitations to donate or share was the home base for the movement. Compelling video ads reached many and conveyed emotion in a way that created a relationship between him and the voters. Timely, relevant, and actionable content was pushed through social media channels, creating a buzz and awareness amongst millions with every like and share. As all these parts worked together, this strategy produced the greatest bang for advertising buck any campaign in history had ever enjoyed. While Obama ran a nimble and adaptive campaign (for example, using digital ads and cable TV ads to target specific demographics in certain counties in key states), Mitt Romney marketed like it was 1999, running a "Mad Men" style campaign (this is in reference to the popular TV show about an ad agency in the 60's) where he predominantly used broadcast TV stations to blanket entire states with the same message. This contrast in marketing approaches had a huge impact in the outcome of the elections.

Today there is no such thing as a digital strategy anymore, just strategy in a digital world. The Obama campaign was the first to politically capitalize on the reality of the shift of the population to digital media. Marketing is all about getting your product in front of customers, and in the digital world we now live in, we can do that more effectively than we ever have before! So the next time you hear someone ask a question like, “How did Obama win back-to-back elections?” make sure they know it might have had as much to do with his digital marketing strategy as it did his plan for healthcare reform. It is clear that marketing today is certainly more complex than it was a few years ago when all you needed to do was place ads on radio, yellow pages, newspapers, and billboards to reach the entire market. Today's fragmented, digital media landscape can be intimidating, but as was the case with Barack Obama, it can also provides some incredible opportunities to meaningfully engage with your customers like never before. You can still try to market like we’re in the 90's, though as Mitt Romney discovered, that strategy just doesn't pay off the way it used to.

​About us: Level 11 Online Marketing is a fast growing digital advertising agency that is becoming known for disrupting the status quo. We specialize in digital advertising, video production, SEO, SEM, advanced analytics, custom web solutions via website design & implementation, social media strategies and conversion optimization. Headquartered in Utah, you will find Level 11 team members in Utah, Washington, California, Idaho, and Colorado. We have the best creative minds in the industry backed up by the most talented software developers and video production teams which leads to powerful, efficient advertising campaigns.

If you have questions, comment here or email us at info@level11.io today!